Aurora Rising (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency #1)

by Alastair Reynolds

her natural state of mind was something Dreyfus would never be able to grasp, any more than a horse could grasp algebra.

Amusement, a wry sense of having been bettered, was the only human response to a fatal and inescapable ambush.

Its absence was so profound that it almost felt like a negative image of the thing itself.